The Great Earthquakes of the Past.
HE district of Italy now afflicted has suffered fearful things in past centuries. There were 15,000 lives lost in Catania in the year 1137; 40,000 in Naples in 1456; 70,000 in Naples in 1626; 6,000 in Palermo in 1726; 30,000 in the Province of Calabria in 1783; 10,000 in Calabria in 1857. Earthquake records show that there were recorded before A.D. 1, in a period of 1,700 years, 58 earthquakes, or one in 29 years. From that time to the end of the 9th century, a period of 900 years, there were 197 recorded, about one in 4½ years. In the next 600 years there was an average of one a year. The next 300 years an average of 9 a year; the next 50 years an average of 64 a year; the next 18 years, or from 1850 to 1868, an average of 277 in a year. These, of course, include all trembles of the earth recorded. Of destructive earthquakes, Robert Mallet, the English seismologist, tells us that between B.C. 1700 and A.D. 96, a period of 1,796 years, there were recorded sixteen destructive earthquakes. From A.D. 96 to 1850, 204, or an average of one in 8 years. From 1850 to 1865 an average of one a year, in which more or less life and property were destroyed. From 1865 to 1868, a period of three years, there were 15 destructive earthquakes, or an average of five a year. Since that time we are sure the old earth has kept up its record, and this last awful earthquake in Italy seems to have been the greatest on record since the Deluge. While doubtless the seismographs have recorded earthquakes in later times which once would not have been noticed at all, this is not true as regards destructive earthquakes. The constant increase in the perturbations of the old earth certainly mean something. Man's perversions of God's laws in the beginning brought sin, and sin brought death, and whether we regard His word or not, the great fact is true just the same that a continuation of sin against God will bring continual trouble and calamity. When man whom God made ruler over this earth sinned, all below man was affected. Perversion of spiritual law means perversion of physical law. The earth is suffering for man's sake.